Facebook GIF Ads: Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Who doesn’t love a good GIF? They’re the soul of the internet, mesmerizing and captivating. But did you know advertisers can use Facebook GIF ads to get more out of their paid advertising campaigns?

Recent developments and trends have made almost all big advertising networks take an interest in rich content. As such, they are now pushing towards the use of rich content like video and animations instead of static photos.

What does this mean? Read on to find out.

What You Must Know About Facebook Ads

In case you have already run some campaigns through Facebook’s advertising platform, you may have noticed generally low – to very low – CTR rates. It’s mostly because of the high amount of advertisers pushing ads and overwhelming the audience.

However, there are additional reasons why it happens. Let’s go through these before we talk more about Facebook GIF ads.

First of all, people like the ones you are targeting are using Facebook because they want to see what their friends are up to. They want to see pictures of the people they care about and keep in touch with their dear ones.

Naturally, ads don’t fit into that scenario.

Another reason why CTR rates are so low has to do with the targeting options available. A very broad targeting method generally means low CTR. While Facebook has improved this aspect and you may feel more in control, once you get started you will notice a different story.

Your CTR will go up if you target more precisely, but the more precise your targeting is, the higher your costs will be. And you will see a non-viable costs for each click.

How to Improve Your CTR? Use Better Ad Creative

The better your ad looking is looking, the more engagement it generates, the higher the relevance score, the better the CTR, the lower the costs.

By using Facebook GIF ads, you adopt the rich media trend I have mentioned before.

Ideally, you should use videos, but long videos tend to perform worse. Facebook says it so themselves: “shorter videos get more complete views.”

Facebook is treating GIFs just like video content but with an added benefit. Using GIFs to create your ad would show them in a loop.

General Facebook GIF Ads Guidelines

Naturally, all of the Facebook Advertising Policies apply to GIF ads.

To get a good performing ad, you should always:

Choose high-quality animations.

Choose subtle motion.

Use a GIF with a file size less than 8MB.

Use a GIF with less than 20% text on the image.

Avoid GIFs that flash or are grainy, as your boosted post may not be approved.

There are a few other important aspects you should consider. First of all, make sure your GIF really describes your product of its benefits.

It is best to limit the amount of text in your GIF to a CTA and nothing else.

How to Create High-Quality GIFs

In case you have videos created for your products, you can head to Giphy‘s GIF creator and repurpose them. My tip is to keep the GIF’s duration under 10 seconds.

To really take it to the next level and take full advantage of Facebook GIF Ads, I advise you to get familiar with custom audiences and lookalike audiences. They are the best targeting methods at this point.

Granted, to be able to create custom and lookalike audiences, you will need a list of subscribers to upload to Facebook’s Advertising platform.